A FORMER head teacher who downloaded a string of pornographic images of children has avoided jail.

Ken Stamp, 44, of Forest Court, Snaresbrook, was charged with downloading 13 indecent images of children - a total of 22 pictures - and changed his plea to guilty in February this year.

However, Snaresbrook Crown Court heard today (Thursday) that the former teacher, who taught at Woodlands Junior School, Ilford, would not go to jail because the images were not "involved with the direct exploitation of children".

Instead he will be made to attend a sex offenders' rehabilitation programme, have his movements supervised for three years and be placed on the sex offenders' register for the minimum period of ten years.

Judge Simon Wilkinson said: "On February 15 you pleaded guilty to 11 counts of holding indecent pseudo photographs of children. I do not intend to impose a prison sentence for these reasons.

"First of all you are 44 years of age and are of previous good character, secondly you have pleaded guilty and thirdly the images which are the subject of this indictment are pseudo pictures and therefore are not involved with the direct exploitation of children."

He was found not guilty on the two remaining charges.

Stamp was deputy headteacher of Woodlands Junior school in Loxford Lane, Ilford, between January 2001 and the end of March 2005.

After he left the school his replacement, using Stamp's old computer, discovered there were problems with the machine.

When she asked her husband to take a look at it he discovered it had been used to download child porn.

Stamp moved on to become head teacher at Northbury Junior school in North Street, Barking, on April 4, 2005 but police soon swooped, finding extra images on CD roms at his home and on a computer he was using at the new school.